3-4 second delay answering Call Queue calls compared to native Teams

[Mark Clayton1709155289]

One of our users has pointed out a delay of around 3-4 seconds before the outbound audio channel is established when answering Teams call queue calls. I am guessing this is the overhead of the Citrix optimization. I have managed to replicate this and it doesn't happen on the Native Teams Windows App.

 

Is this expected behaviour? 

 

Thanks

[Fabrizio Coraiola]

Hi, also we implemented teams phone in our citrix cloud farm and only with the incoming call we got a delay of 3/4 seconds between the moment when we click on the answer button and the time when we start hear the voice. When we use teams phone locally on a windows pc there in no delay. We supposed that teams in citrix farm goes in fallback mode cause the firewall so , just for try, we  momentary allow all traffic goes between client-pc and vda terminal and viceversa ( over vpn ) and also we let our citrix terminal have full access to internet but this didn't solve the delay problem. We also thought it could be related to dns, but we checked the configuration and everything it's ok. So  , like Mark said, we suppose that this is a limitation of the citrix teams optimization but we can't find any confirm. So let us know if this kind of delay happen in every teams phone citrix farm implementation or if it depends on a bad configuration. Thanks

[Emanuel Leka]

same issues here as above. Though sometime there is a 10 sec delay.

[Jeff Riechers]

So a few things I have found need to be done to make sure Teams optimization works.

 

1. Install Teams with the necessary VDI all users install flags.

2. Enable Teams acceleration in Citrix Policies.

3. Make sure you install an updated Workspace App client on your local machine that has the Teams acceleration.

4. Fire up Teams and make sure that the Workspace Optimized tag is showing

[Fabrizio Coraiola]

Hi, our teams working wery well with meeting features ( voice call to other teams user , meetings with and without video ). Only with phone call we got the 3/4 sec delay.
We are using VDA 2209, citrix acceleration policy is on and hdx optimization is active ( from teams-about-version.... I can read it )

For curiosity I tested teams phone also under microsoft windows 365 and I 've got the same delay, so I think it's depend from the audio/video optimization ( citrix or microsoft optimizazion is indifferent ). Under windows 365 the only advantage is that the secondary ringer works well ( in citrix is supported but doesn't work because  not yet supported by teams msi installer.....maybe one day in the future ). Also the headset buttons don't work in Windows 365. That's all.

[Mike_B]

I think this is 'normal' although I agree it's a bit irritating - especially if you don't start to answer the call immediately it starts ringing.  By the time the call has messed around for a few seconds, it's gone to voicemail.

 

I suspect it comes from the optimization itself - although the phone 'rings' inside the VDI, when you answer the call, it has to initiate the audio/video connection from the endpoint itself, which takes a moment.

[Kris Castelow1709159165]

I too am being asked about this.

Ive a number of customers who aren't happy with Teams telephony performance and constantly miss calls or have calls drop / hang up.

Has anyone managed to alleviate this to any degree?   Ive tried different versions of Teams, VDA, Audio settings, CWA... none seem to have any beneficial impact.

Likely I will need to give the customers a regular device and move them off Citrix.

[Raj Katyal1709162337]

We have also deployed Teams Telephony on Citrix.  Even with the latest version of CW we are seeing some delay compared to native Teams App.  What is the likelyhood of this getting resolved?  - Citrix?? 

 

 

[Jeff Riechers]

What is the client side internet like?  Is it being backhauled to the datacenter?  Teams acceleration works best if the client can access the internet directly, if you backhaul it you are basically running that Teams traffic over the link twice, and getting no acceleration.

[Mike_B]

On 2/20/2023 at 6:16 PM, Jeff Riechers1709152667 said:

What is the client side internet like?  Is it being backhauled to the datacenter?  Teams acceleration works best if the client can access the internet directly, if you backhaul it you are basically running that Teams traffic over the link twice, and getting no acceleration.

 

In my case, single-figure latency, and ~275Mbps cable connection.   Web pages load almost instantly, downloads are rapid.  But Optimized Teams still takes several seconds to make the connection after hitting Answer on the call...    It's the same in the office as well.

 

Using Teams natively on my laptop, it answers the call more or less immediately, so I don't think client-side internet is the root cause here.

[willi weikum]

I'm running support tickets with Citrix and Microsoft because in a peer-to-peer Teams call we experience 5-6 sec delay until the client rings and another 5-6 sec delay after the call has been answered. Ringing happens after 2-3 sec and audio is connected immediately with native client. for PSTN calls audio delays seems shorter.

 

It would be really helpful if you could share your numbers:
- how long does it take until the calls rings

- after answering the call how long does it take until audio path works (in my tests caller > callee direction is always faster)

- do you have proxy/firewall in place, proxy auth etc..

 

Especially after MS reported today they implemented early media for VDI in all tenants (which was not the case till now)

[Kris Castelow1709159165]

Hi Willi, 

I will run some of the benchmarks you asked when time permits. 

Can I ask a little about where you heard about the Early Media implementation?

Thanks :_)

[Robert Sleegers]

Following this thread because we're experiencing the same issues as the topic starter states. Every call (so also with regular calls) for our 250/275 users is handled with a 5-10 sec delay before the line 'opens up' in Citrix. 

When running Teams locally the problem isn't present.

[Jeff Riechers]

I haven't been able to replicate this issue in my testing.  Let's get some data.

 

1. What version of Teams is running in the session?

2. What version of VDA is installed?

3. What version of Workspace is installed, and what version of endpoint?

4. Are the Teams optimizations policies in place?

5. How does the endpoint get to the internet, do they break out directly, or do they traverse back to the datacenter to get out.

6. Does Teams in the session say it is running HDX optimized.

7. Do you see the same experience in Web Teams vs Full Teams in the session?

[Mike_B]

I can answer these, at least for my estate:

1.  Teams is 1.6.00.4472 (updated monthly, correct procedure for machine-wide and VDI install)

2.  VDA is 2203 LTSR CU2

3.  Workspace is latest monthly update.  I get the same on my laptop though which is runing 2212

4.  Yes Teams is optimized and otherwise works well, meetings etc with video calls works exactly as expected.

5.  Endpoint has direct internet access via cable broadband.

6.  Yes, it states Optimized

7.  This needs testing.  I guess that wouldn't use optimization though, so even if it were faster, it would be a worse experience media-wise.

[David Stimson1709163835]

We are getting the same issue with the latest teams VDI version. The delay is about 3 - 6 seconds for the call to connect and then audio seems to be one way (incoming only) for a further 4 -5 seconds. I have a call logged with Citrix on this but have only recently provided them the info they requested so will report back if I hear anything. I find the issue exists on or off the work LAN so probably not our SD-WAN or ADC as I first though. I will keep digging and report back If I have any luck.

 

1. Teams VDI version 1.6.0.6754

2. 2303 also tried 2212 and still had issue

3. Endpoint is windows 10 21H2 fully patched running CWA 2303

4. Teams is optimized

5. Issue exists with direct internet connection when working from home or in the office through our SD-WAN

6. Yes showing as optimized

7. Web version has no delay but is bad quality due to no optimization

 

in the interest of finding a common theme I thought I would add some extra info about our environment - 

 

Endpoints are Dell laptops but I have tried on or off the dock and doesn't affect it.

VDA NIC is vmxnet3 as our hypervisor is vmware 7

We have WEM with basic optimizations in place. I will test with this disabled shortly

VDA's are MCS provisioned and Citrix is all on-prem latest CR version

Antivirus is Defender, on both endpoint and VDA - I wonder if we all use defender?

 

Hopefully this helps

Edited April 5, 2023 by David Stimson
updated with new info

[Brian Chambers1709156838]

Has anyone found a solution for the delay?

 

We currently just went to Teams Voice and having the same kind of delays.

 

Currently running Windows 11 N with VDA 2305. Teams was installed using the flags and we update it once a month. We are using MSC on-perm for provisioning. Currently using 2305 workspace on the client machines.

 

We have split tunneling setup.  The sites that have a local internet connect for split tunneling are seeing a 3-4 second delay, where the other sites going out the data centers are 5-7 seconds.

 

We have enabled the citrix policy for Microsoft Teams Optimization and teams is optimized with HDX. We also have a logon script setting the to set the disableGpu to True in the desktop-config.json file under Appdata for the users.

[Gary Denham]

any updates to this issue? another firm here with the same issue! I've have had to put our teams telephony project on hold due to the delay in Citrix, native teams app on laptop and mobile works great! but we work in a hosted Citrix desktop so no one will want to window out of Citrix every time to answer a call!

 

I've tried answering as best i can below, our IT is now managed by an MSP so i am limited in what info I can get!

 

1. Teams VDI version 1.6.00.24078 64bit

2. unsure handled by our MSP

3. Endpoint is windows 10 22H2 fully patched running CWA 2309 (we have also tried windows 11 and differing versions of CWA to no avail.

4. Teams is optimized

5. 100Mb MPLS with 100mb breakout at the MSP DC

6. Yes showing as optimized

7. Web version has no delay but is bad quality due to no optimization

[Jeff Riechers]

Does it work from other locations with different internet?  Or do you see the same everywhere.

[Gary Denham]

On 11/2/2023 at 1:56 AM, Jeff Riechers1709152667 said:

Does it work from other locations with different internet?  Or do you see the same everywhere.

yes we tried different locations and different networks including cellular. 

 

Citrix have just come back with the below via our MSP's engineer.

 

"They (Citrix)  have multiple clients experiencing the same delay with Teams in Citrix. They advise that as long as we're following the Citrix Teams optimization best practice (which we are) there isn't anything they can do at the moment.  Apparently this issue has been an intermittent issue since January 2023 and "Microsoft is working with -redacted- to re-configure their network to reduce delay's".

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by James Kindon
Customer name should be hidden